Experiencing Catalonia. The first day: Barcelona: "
As the wheels hit the tarmac in Barcelona we were already struggling with my usual time difference incompetence. Somehow id managed to underestimate the flight time and take the hour off, instead of add it on... Some things will never change.
We blundered through the doors and into the lobby at the B Hotel only twenty minutes late and by the looks of things the other bloggers had hardly noticed, they were all chatting away had a drink in hand. While Georgie checked in I popped over and introduced myself, to be honest it was a really bizarre experience. I'm used to seeing most of these people as a picture the size of a postage stamp but here they all were, life size and sipping drinks.
Me and G rushed upstairs to drop our bags off and quickly freshen up but our flashy room managed to distract us for yet another ten minutes. The B Hotel is a sleek, modern affair with rich dark wood, big sheets of glass and metal all over the shop (you know the sort) and as anyone who knows Georgie knows- luxury is like her catnip! (See Europe A La Carte For a proper review of the B Hotel, Also B Hotel is running their B389 offer until the end of January...)
Back downstairs we all sat in a circle and done an awkward little “get to know you” exercise where we all talk about our on-line identities and endeavours... Not my bag at all. personally, I keep all that geeky stuff under my hat... Like Batman and Bruce Wayne, I keep my on-line life secret to protect those around me... From falling asleep! It was however slightly liberating to be able to natter freely about such things with people who knew what I was on about, unfortunately Georgie hadn’t boned up on the technical side of blogging and was literally baffled.
We were herded through to the dining room where a large table had been carefully set out, grabbed a seat and the wine began to flow. The table chit chat soon turned to our still absent itinerary but Leticia and Amaia (the two organisers of the Catalonia Experience) weren’t giving anything away, it wasn't a problem though because the food had started to appear and it looked proper tasty!
Being a Euro-virgin I somewhat naively assumed the grub would be pretty much the same as the UK, perhaps of better quality and finer ingredients... But what I wasn’t prepared for was the sheer size of the portions. The “starter” salad landed on the table in front of me and I instantly regretted eating two bread rolls... Honestly, I’ve seen less fresh produce in entire allotments! The wine poured and drank well, the food kept coming and I very quickly realised I was going to need a new hole in my belt for this trip.
Georgie and I stuffed ourselves stupid and I slipped outside for a sensation of the smoky kind, not long after Georgie also found her way outside. Although all the food and wine had loosened the conversation, the main topic was still blogging and a few people had asked Georgie a few questions which were well above her station... She made a quick exit under the cloak of also being a smoker to come out and probe me for a quick blogging lesson... I smoked and Georgie crammed.
I should probably use this opportunity to explain, to those who don’t know, Georgie's position in regards to the blog and how it wouldn’t work without her... What normally happens is thus: Georgie wakes up with an idea in her head, one of those ideas that most people never ever have, she presents the idea “at” me,
“Aaron! Lets go to Bac Ha market. I will be all hill-tribey and stuff and we can buy some hill tribe clothes and drink some Vietnamese coffee...”
What I do is hone the idea into something possible and work out how it can be done, which normally involves mucho mucho effort, guessing and plenty of luck. But in the end we find ourselves in places and with people that others just don’t see, this is when phase two of Georgie takes over - she busts out the video camera and that's when the magic happens. So I suppose Georgie's official Happytimeblog title would be “Director of Creative ideas and moving pictures' (you can read more about both of us and what we do on our about page).Cramming and smoking session over we retreated back to the dining room for the grand unveiling of the itinerary. We were all handed small briefcase like bags containing handfuls of leaflets and literature about various places around Barcelona before Leticia Got started on the good stuff:
Day 2:
-Shopping for ingredients at La Bouqueria Market, Barcelona.
-Cooking up the ingredients in traditional Catalan style at Cook & Taste.
-Bus ride to El Montanyà Spa Resort, Seva.
-Relax and enjoy the Spa.
Day 3:
-Hike in the Bergueda Mountains.
-Lunch at Els Roures, Castellar del Riu, Berga.
-Quad bike excursion.
-Back to B Hotel, Barcelona.
-Dinner at La Vinoteca Torres
Day 4:
-Segway tour of Barcelona's Gothic quarter.
So with that dinner was cleared away and a select few made a beeline for the bar. Despite the
early rise the following morning Nellie (from Wild Junket) was hell bent on hitting the town so the last few sensible people made their excuses and went off to bed while we rapped up warm and wandered up Grand Vie. A few steps outside the hotel we realised Nellie had also thought better of it and slipped off to bed too... Undeterred Georgie, Rich (Brilliant Trips), Keith (Velvet Escapes) and I found a nice little cafe with some smoked meats hanging on the walls and went in for a beer. Somewhere around 1am the place started to fill with locals who were only just sitting down to eat but the beer had started to hang heavy on the Catalonia Experience Crew so we strutted back to the hotel to pack our bags ready for day numero two...Just to be VERY clear, this was indeed a paid for press trip sponsored by the Department of Tourism for Catalonia and if you want to know more about the HAPPYTIMEBLOG disclosure policy and how we handle free stuff then have a peek at our new Disclosure page.
Other posts related to The Catalonia Experience:
-#Catexp notes from Barcelona via Twitter
-Our Disclosure Policy"
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